Use the sites discussed in class to (1) assemble information about your school and (2) write one or more paragraphs for each type of information that you find.You should be able to combine these paragraphs, along with an introduction and conclusion to create a free standing, coherent, evidence-based description of your school.
Be sure that each of your paragraphs includes:
A strong topic sentence.
An explanation of why the data you chose to cite relates to the subject you are addressing, e.g. in a paragraph about the teaching at a school, you should state why you feel that the student/teacher ratio informs your judgement about the school's ability to provide high quality teaching. These sentences should be based on the definitions of some of these measures on the InfoWorks site, but can also include your own reasoning about the subject.
Multiple pieces of specific data to support your claim. Each measure should include a comparison, e.g. with state averages, so that the reader can judge whether the value is relatively high or low.
Include the students' view of the school when possible. Results from the student surveys can be found on the new Infoworks site.
Note: Tables are not provided on this page because it is possible to just copy and paste the tables from the Infoworks site directly in this page or into Evernote!
Useful Sources:
The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (Met) operates an East Bay campus in the city of Newport. This school has been given a special state charter as a vocational school and is therefore able to operate independently of the traditional public school system. Youth that go to school at the Met in Newport are expected to participate in internships in the community for school credit. They link there entire high school learning plan to their area of interest and also to their internship. The two more traditional classes offered at the Met are the called Qualitative Analysis and Quantitative Analysis. They are essentially math and reading classes. Each student also participates in an advisory of no more than 14 students. The advisor stays with the student throughout their career and advisories are sometimes structured around student interests such as the arts.
Unfortunately SurveyWorks does not disaggregate data for the Providence and Newport Met campuses so we only know the average. It makes it very difficult to compare the Met to the traditional high school, Rogers. The Met's overall proficiency rates are lower than statewide but they are also serving a population that many anecdotally say would otherwise have dropped out of school. 64% of Met School students qualify for subsidized lunch versus 46% statewide. They also have a much higher percentage of non-white students, 52% versus 30% statewide. It would also seem from parent self reports that parents of Met School students are less likely to have completed college than students statewide.
The Met has a 30% chronic absenteeism rate versus 17% statewide but they have a 6.5 drop out rate versus 17% statewide. There four year graduation rate is slightly lower than the state as a whole (73% versus 77%) but their five year graduation rate is actually higher at 80% versus 77%. This could indicate that they are working with a more challenging population but that they are in fact sticking with them to ensure that they graduate.
Students, in the 2012 SurveyWorks survey, rated the Met school much more highly than students do at other schools in the state on average. This could be in part because it is a school that they choose to go to rather than one they are just placed in but the data is so drastically different in terms of satisfaction that it seems there must be something else going on as well. Teacher practice receives high marks from students. The most marked difference is in student reports on their own engagement in learning. 74% of Met students report that all or most of their teachers keep them interested in class versus 32% statewide. 81% of Met students say that that most or all of their teachers inspire them to do their best work versus 40% statewide. They also rate much higher in student perceptions of college and career readiness although when pressed about their plans they are only slightly more likely to attend college than the statewide average. The Met also scores much better from students on indicators of bullying and levels of teacher-student respect. 83% of students at the Met report that most or all of their teachers seem to care about them personally versus 36% statewide.
Teachers at the Met School, in the 2012 SurveyWorks survey consistently rate teacher practices higher at the Met than teachers statewide rate their own school programs. They are significantly higher rated in the area of providing experiential learning opportunities. They are also much more highly rated in helping students develop coping skills than teachers statewide, which reflects the school's commitment to the whole child. They also rate more highly on teacher collaboration and educator relationships.
Parents, in the 2012 SurveyWorks survey, rate the Met higher than parents rate their school statewide in the areas of keeping their child interested in what they are learning, college and career readiness and planning and school safety, climate, risk behaviors and discipline, learning opportunities, equity and respect. Literally in every category Met school parents seem happier with the environment than parents at schools statewide. However, these parents are less likely to themselves to find time to help with homework at home, which would indicate that the families these children are coming from are at higher risk. Nonetheless, they are more likely to participate in parent-teacher conferences than are parents statewide, which is likely related to their positive feelings toward the school and their own self report that they are more involved in decision making at the school than parents report statewide.
In summary, it would seem that teachers, parents and students feel that the Met school offers a strong, supportive environment, much more so than is reported at other schools. They also ultimately seem to graduate more of there students overall. This would indicate that schools have something to learn from the Met about the culture that is created there. However, test scores, if we feel that the NECAP actually represents student learning, which is debatable, shows that the Met should learn something from traditional schools about knowledge transmission and how to perform on the tests.
Student Achievement
11th Grade Math Proficiency 2011-2012
Met: 16%
State: 30%
Since this is a state-run school it is a little unique in terms of how it is funded. It is not based primarily on property values the way it usually is. Following is an overview of the funding structure from the 2012 SurveyWorks data. It is unclear how SurveyWorks came to the numbers on district property value and district tax rate per student. It is possibly a state average or a Providence average.
District Property Value per Student
FY2009
$378,009.90
—
District Tax Rate per $1000.00
FY2009
$12.11
—
District Per Pupil Expenditure
FY2009
$15,305
—
District Property Tax Capacity
FY2009
$35
—
District Tax Effort
FY2009
$256
—
District Median Family Income
FY2009
$32,058
—
Student-teacher ratio at the Met is 1:10 versus 1:11 statewide average.
Changes Over the Past Decade
11th Grade Math Proficiency
Met 2012: 16% (6% in 2008-2009)
State 2012: 30% (27% in 2008-2009)
11th Grade Reading Proficiency
Met 2012: 66% (57% in 2008-2009)
State 2012: 76% (69% in 2008-2009)
11 Grade Writing Proficiency
Met 2012: 22% (23% in 2008-2009)
State 2012: 51% (42% in 2008-2009)
11th Grade Science Proficiency
Met 2012: 4% (7% in 2008-2009)
State 2012: 32% (20% in 2008-2009)
The four year graduation rate is basically statistically the same and the five year graduation rate has improved by five percentage points.
The data would indicate that that there have been improvements both within the school and statewide over the past 5 years.
Use the sites discussed in class to (1) assemble information about your school and (2) write one or more paragraphs for each type of information that you find.You should be able to combine these paragraphs, along with an introduction and conclusion to create a free standing, coherent, evidence-based description of your school.
Be sure that each of your paragraphs includes:
Note: Tables are not provided on this page because it is possible to just copy and paste the tables from the Infoworks site directly in this page or into Evernote!
Useful Sources:
School Demographics and Geographical Location (data taken from 2012 SurveyWorks data,
http://infoworks.ride.ri.gov)The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (Met) operates an East Bay campus in the city of Newport. This school has been given a special state charter as a vocational school and is therefore able to operate independently of the traditional public school system. Youth that go to school at the Met in Newport are expected to participate in internships in the community for school credit. They link there entire high school learning plan to their area of interest and also to their internship. The two more traditional classes offered at the Met are the called Qualitative Analysis and Quantitative Analysis. They are essentially math and reading classes. Each student also participates in an advisory of no more than 14 students. The advisor stays with the student throughout their career and advisories are sometimes structured around student interests such as the arts.
Unfortunately SurveyWorks does not disaggregate data for the Providence and Newport Met campuses so we only know the average. It makes it very difficult to compare the Met to the traditional high school, Rogers. The Met's overall proficiency rates are lower than statewide but they are also serving a population that many anecdotally say would otherwise have dropped out of school. 64% of Met School students qualify for subsidized lunch versus 46% statewide. They also have a much higher percentage of non-white students, 52% versus 30% statewide. It would also seem from parent self reports that parents of Met School students are less likely to have completed college than students statewide.
The Met has a 30% chronic absenteeism rate versus 17% statewide but they have a 6.5 drop out rate versus 17% statewide. There four year graduation rate is slightly lower than the state as a whole (73% versus 77%) but their five year graduation rate is actually higher at 80% versus 77%. This could indicate that they are working with a more challenging population but that they are in fact sticking with them to ensure that they graduate.
Students, in the 2012 SurveyWorks survey, rated the Met school much more highly than students do at other schools in the state on average. This could be in part because it is a school that they choose to go to rather than one they are just placed in but the data is so drastically different in terms of satisfaction that it seems there must be something else going on as well. Teacher practice receives high marks from students. The most marked difference is in student reports on their own engagement in learning. 74% of Met students report that all or most of their teachers keep them interested in class versus 32% statewide. 81% of Met students say that that most or all of their teachers inspire them to do their best work versus 40% statewide. They also rate much higher in student perceptions of college and career readiness although when pressed about their plans they are only slightly more likely to attend college than the statewide average. The Met also scores much better from students on indicators of bullying and levels of teacher-student respect. 83% of students at the Met report that most or all of their teachers seem to care about them personally versus 36% statewide.
Teachers at the Met School, in the 2012 SurveyWorks survey consistently rate teacher practices higher at the Met than teachers statewide rate their own school programs. They are significantly higher rated in the area of providing experiential learning opportunities. They are also much more highly rated in helping students develop coping skills than teachers statewide, which reflects the school's commitment to the whole child. They also rate more highly on teacher collaboration and educator relationships.
Parents, in the 2012 SurveyWorks survey, rate the Met higher than parents rate their school statewide in the areas of keeping their child interested in what they are learning, college and career readiness and planning and school safety, climate, risk behaviors and discipline, learning opportunities, equity and respect. Literally in every category Met school parents seem happier with the environment than parents at schools statewide. However, these parents are less likely to themselves to find time to help with homework at home, which would indicate that the families these children are coming from are at higher risk. Nonetheless, they are more likely to participate in parent-teacher conferences than are parents statewide, which is likely related to their positive feelings toward the school and their own self report that they are more involved in decision making at the school than parents report statewide.
In summary, it would seem that teachers, parents and students feel that the Met school offers a strong, supportive environment, much more so than is reported at other schools. They also ultimately seem to graduate more of there students overall. This would indicate that schools have something to learn from the Met about the culture that is created there. However, test scores, if we feel that the NECAP actually represents student learning, which is debatable, shows that the Met should learn something from traditional schools about knowledge transmission and how to perform on the tests.
Student Achievement
11th Grade Math Proficiency 2011-2012
Met: 16%
State: 30%
11th Grade Reading Proficiency 2011-2012
Met: 66%
State: 76%
11 Grade Writing Proficiency 2011-2012
Met: 22%
State 51%
11th Grade Science Proficiency 2011-2012
Met: 4%
State: 32%
AYP Report Card
Funding and Resources
Since this is a state-run school it is a little unique in terms of how it is funded. It is not based primarily on property values the way it usually is. Following is an overview of the funding structure from the 2012 SurveyWorks data. It is unclear how SurveyWorks came to the numbers on district property value and district tax rate per student. It is possibly a state average or a Providence average.
Student-teacher ratio at the Met is 1:10 versus 1:11 statewide average.
Changes Over the Past Decade
11th Grade Math Proficiency
Met 2012: 16% (6% in 2008-2009)
State 2012: 30% (27% in 2008-2009)
11th Grade Reading Proficiency
Met 2012: 66% (57% in 2008-2009)
State 2012: 76% (69% in 2008-2009)
11 Grade Writing Proficiency
Met 2012: 22% (23% in 2008-2009)
State 2012: 51% (42% in 2008-2009)
11th Grade Science Proficiency
Met 2012: 4% (7% in 2008-2009)
State 2012: 32% (20% in 2008-2009)
The four year graduation rate is basically statistically the same and the five year graduation rate has improved by five percentage points.
The data would indicate that that there have been improvements both within the school and statewide over the past 5 years.